"We're packing up and moving to the warehouse that Lupe found," Dolph replied. "Better wake the others. That girl Fayte that Velvela turned; she ought to be ready to travel. We can hunt when we get to the river; as well as river birds, there'll be rats, too."

~~~

In that same city, a young man walked with a young woman. To the casual observer, it would appear that they were a couple; yet, that observer would be wrong. The young man had short black hair and icy blue eyes. Hidden beneath his coat was a belt which contained an ebony fighting stick, with a very sharp point at one end. He also had several wooden knives concealed in his clothes; a stiletto knife in one boot, a punch dagger in the pocket of his coat and several other items concealed in secret pockets.

The young man's name was Raziel and he, along with his companion, was a vampire hunter. There had been a smattering of suspicious deaths in the area and they had come to investigate. Raziel had become a vampire hunter after running away from his mother, and being adopted by a hunter named Misty. She had taught him everything she knew, being a lapsed ninja, and a lot more besides, being also a vampire hunter. Raziel had teamed up with his companion soon after, as two hunters working together was best when dealing with the undead. They had a platonic relationship as a general rule; romance had no place in their work.

Raziel's companion was a pale, petite young woman named Elyse, who was wearing her ginger red hair in a high ponytail, letting only her cropped bangs down nearly covering her eyes. Although she didn't look very intimidating, Elyse was an ex-gymnast who loved yoga, so she was extremely flexible, agile, and in incredible physical shape. She self-trained herself to fight, and often incorporated her gymnast flips and tricks into her unique fighting style.

Elyse was hiding a few weapons of her own. Less than Raziel, as she was wearing less clothing to conceal it all. She had a wooden stake in back of her boot and a switch blade in the back pocket of her jeans - concealed by the length of her tank top. She also had a small gun inside her purse.

Her first vampire sighting had been when she was a 10 year old child, being driven back to her mother's after a weekend with her father. Her father stopped at a traffic light, perpendicular to an alley in which Elyse looked over to. She noticed a man with short black hair who, at first, looking like he was neck kissing a woman... until she started resisting, and the man became increasingly aggressive. Just as the light had changed, the woman's body fell to the ground and the vampire's glance turned over to Elyse. For a split second, she saw the man. His eyes were black as night, his fangs were bared, and blood was sliding down the corners of his mouth onto his chin.

She told her parents, and they sent her to a child therapist, who told her that vampires didn't exist, and it was likely her imagination trying to make sense of witnessing a homicide. Elyse was positive that it was a monster. She started studying vampires, conducting stakeout, walking downtown with a wooden dagger and spying on suspicious people in the hopes for finding one to prove that she was right. As the years past, believed her as she kept claiming they were real - except for Raziel. He believed her, and he helped her validate their existence. The two had been working together for a couple years now.

Elyse noticed Jude walking down the sidewalk on the other side of the road. She turned to Raziel, "Check out the pale one in the sunglasses."

Jude approached a woman, "Hey sweet cheeks, do you have a light?"

"Sorry, I don't smoke." The brunette woman shook her head.

"What's a pretty woman like yourself doing walking around alone. Where's your boyfriend?" He moved closer to her.

She pulled her tank top down to show off a little more cleavage, crossed the street and walked over to Jude and the woman. She put her arm on the woman's shoulder, "Go home, grandma. You're too old for him."

Jude grinned. A younger, willing woman... it was almost too easy. The other woman walked off, annoyed at being called a 'grandma'. Jude said to Elyse, "Too old for me?"

"Compared to me, yes." Elyse winked at him, "How about the two of us go to a nearby motel, hottie?"

Jude walked behind Elyse, following her to the 'motel'. She took his through the alleyway, "It's not too much further. This is a short cut." She said, signaling Raziel.

Raziel waited in the alleyway, holding his fighting stick. This was a weapon that Misty had given him; ninjas often used them while training, due to metal weapons being too dangerous to fight with when training inexperienced ninja. It was ironic that the wooden weapon that was considered safer for humans was deadly to vampires. When Raziel saw Jude walk past with Elyse, he sneaked behind the vampire and struck him hard over the head with the ebony fighting stick. Any vampire hit with wood would instantly black out; any human would be dizzy and disoriantated. If this man was indeed a vampire, there were ways of testing him... and also, of torturing him.

"Take him into that closed down shop, the one with the boards on the windows," Raziel replied. "He'll be out for a while; once we have him there, we tie him up. I've got bast cord and vampire handcuffs."

The handcuffs in question were made entirely of wood, even the hinges, and no vampire would be able to get them off. Bast cord was rope made from the inner bark of trees.

Raziel helped Elyse to drag Jude into the shop indicated, removing a board to climb in thru a window, which had been broken a while before, then replacing it once in. Raziel took Jude round the back and to counter the darkness, lit some candles. He then tied Jude's ankles together with bast cord, putting the handcuffs on his wrists.

"Now," he said with a wicked smile to Elyse, "We wait for him to come round. No point in torturing him if he's not awake to feel it."

After a while, Jude slowly opened his eyes, regaining consciousness. He felt like he had headache from when he was hit with the fighting stick. Jude looked at the cuffs, at the rope, and then finally at Elyse and Raziel. "I must be having a nightmare right now."

"Yeah, we haven't decided yet what to do with you," Raziel replied, casually. "In any case, coming after us wouldn't be a very clever decision for you to make. It might not have occurred to you, but we aren't like the humans you usually hunt down."

Jude bared his fangs and his eyes darkened. "No human is a match for me. You two might be more of a challenge, but you're only mortals."

"Calm down. What's your name, hottie? I never asked for it. How rude of me." Elyse stood just far enough away that he couldn't reach her.

He aggressively lunged at her, thinking he could get to her, but to no avail. He growled, "I'm not telling you my name. Let me go, now."

"Aren't you the aggressor?" Elyse laughed, stepping back a bit from him. "Razi, we picked a good one. Let's see... what to do? Torture of some kind, obviously. Maybe, just maybe, let him go and send him back as a warning."

Jude was getting angry. He was trying to get free as hard as he could, baring his fangs and cursing at them. "LET ME THE F*CK GO, OR YOU'RE GOING TO REGRET IT."

"Keep those fangs in your mouth, or you might just lose them." Elyse continued to laugh to herself, enjoying the moment. "You know, that actually might be a good idea. What's a vampire without his fangs? You won't be killing anyone then, and think of the absolute embarrassment from your peers. You might just have to drink blood through a straw."